Ava and Harper's 3rd birthday party

Harper in green, Ava in pink

 Ava and Harper had their 3rd birthday party today.  Before the party they had their Grandma's cameras and took lots of pictures, photographing everyone, front and back,  and everything in the yard.  Looking through my camera on the way home, I was surprised how many good pictures they actually took, but this one of Luke was one of the best.

 They had a pinata and all the little kids took several swings at it but it took a couple of whacks from Luke to get the candy out. 

 They got lots of nice presents, Harper's favorite seemed to be a little animated puppy from Becky and family.  After she opened it, she had to play with it on the slide before she could get back to opening the rest of her gifts.  They took lots of time opening their cards and wanted Mom to read each one.

 It was such a windy day that Kelly just couldn't  get the candles to stay lit, but the girls didn't care, they pretended to blow them out anyway.

After the party, they put on their new bikinis and played in the pool with Avery.

Friday fun day in the pool

 A beautiful morning so we were at the pool before noon.  Auna and Rielee did some crazy jumps into the pool and Ava got more comfortable in the water, floating around while holding on to the little pelican floatie.

 Rielee wanted to style Ava and Harper's hair after their naps, they sat so still and closed their eyes like Rielee told them, so it would be a surprise, I guess.  Rielee said she loved doing it because she didn't have any little sisters at home.

On our afternoon trip to the pool, Ava really enjoyed herself.  She jumped in to me a bunch of times, put her face in the water and blew bubbles and let me float her around while she kicked. 

 Ava and Harper came up to stay with us today.   They were on the go from the minute they got here, asking about a million times when they could go to Rielee's big pool.  They were mostly content to float around on the mattresses but then Ava wanted to try on Rielee's goggles and she let me put her in the water a little.  Harper tried it, too, but not for long since the water was kind of chilly.

 I had a moment of panic today when Harper woke up from her nap with a wad of gum stuck in her hair, right in the front.   It would have looked really bad to have had to cut it out, and I had visions of her at their birthday party on Saturday with a big bald spot, but after a Google search we found that peanut butter works to remove it.  Whew! Her hair smelled really tasty afterwards, too.

They did some pea picking in the evening.  They wanted to go out by themselves, (now that they are 3 and "big girls", we heard a lot about that today) and would run out, pick one pod, bring it in and eat the peas, then run out and get another one, over and over.  Finally, they took containers with them and picked several at a time.

Summer league sisters and cousins

Cousins in the back row-Tierney, Auna, Macee
Emmy on the other side at the net

 The last summer league volleyball games were tonight.  Emmy played on Judy's alumni team against the Rockets, and Auna was invited to play with the varsity, so they played each other!  It was so fun to watch.  Auna did really well, had several good digs and serves.  I know she was really nervous to be playing at that level but she held her own.  We were all very proud of her.  The Rockets won the match.


sweaty sisters

It's badminton season

We played our first badminton game tonight at the Dolans, and we're still bad at it.   Rielee came over and played, too,  she is very competitive and can play really well with the over sized racket she got for her birthday.  After badminton, she picked some peas and carrots out of the garden to munch on.  We didn't thin the carrots so they weren't very big but she didn't care.

Our future Zag

Macee came over this morning to tell us that she had just given her verbal commitment to play volleyball at Gonzaga in 2013..  Her disappointing Boise State camp experience this past weekend convinced her that Gonzaga is where she wants to go.   She was so happy and excited!  Her coach will be coming for a home visit soon. 

Lakefair Volleyball Tournament

Team Dolan

 Today we went to Olympia to watch Emmy and Auna play in the Lakefair Volleyball Tournament.  It is played on the Capital lawn, what a beautiful setting, I think there were 37 courts set up total so there is volleyball going on everywhere.  During one of the breaks betweeen games we walked in and around the capital, a first for me.

 That is Uncle sitting there on the side of the court, his job was to keep the ball out of the street.  He threatened to do cheers for them but they nixed that idea. 

 Auna got lots of good practice and made some great plays.  It was fun to watch she and Em playing together, and Uncle enjoyed teasing them while we hung out together between games.

Em taking a break with Jason